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Dealing with Difficult Personalities in Projects

In: Business and Management

Submitted By lisamitchell8
Words 941
Pages 4
Group Discussion 2 – Managing Difficult Personalities

The “Dominator”, the “Multi-Tasker”, and the “Rambler” are both a frustration and a distraction to the project team. They can demoralize the team by expressing negative opinions; derail productive discussions by preventing other team members from contributing their own ideas, and cause meetings to go off track and reduce efficiency. These team members all have a negative effect on the group dynamic. If Nancy does not address these issues, these people may undermine the success of the project and diminish Nancy’s authority as the project manager.
Going forward, Nancy should take a pro-active approach to managing her team. Strategies that she can use for individual personality types include:
For the Dominator: * Adopt a nominal group discussion technique. In this discussion model each member is asked to respond in writing to a question about the project. Nancy then opens the discussion by asking each participant to share one - and just one - of their comments/suggestions in turn. Nancy will record the ideas on a flip chart for group discussion once all ideas have been brought forward. The discussion continues around the table multiple times until there are no more new ideas or comments to contribute. * Wrap up the meeting with a “round robin” discussion inviting everyone’s feedback on the discussion, progress made and next steps to be taken. * Meet one on one with the “Dominator” and discuss the problem. Using the observation-feeling-need-request conversation model, Nancy can address the situation in a non-confrontational way. Bringing the problem to their attention, making them aware of how they are affecting the group dynamic, and then following up with positive reinforcement if/when improvements are seen can be a motivating factor in helping them develop as a valuable team member in

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